NUKLEONIKA 2004, 49(1):23-27

PRODUCTION OF [18F] FLUORIDE WITH A HIGH-CURRENT TWO LAYER SPHERICAL GOLD TARGET

M. Mirzaii1,2, H. Afarideh1, S. M. Hadji-Saeid1, G. R. Aslani1, M. R. Ensaf 1

1 Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture and Medicine (NRCAM), P. O. Box 31585-4395 Karaj, Iran,
2 Amir Kabir University of Technology, P. O. Box 15875-4413 Tehran, Iran

A new automated target for high yield production of aqueous [18F] fluoride at high beam currents has been constructed for a cyclotron at NRCAM in Karaj (Cyclone 30). It consists of one small golden sphere inside another target chamber, mounted into a special holder, which provides rapid cooling by water flow around and inside the sphere. The target is irradiated with 28 MeV protons. The incident energy on the target chamber is 18 MeV. This target is operated without external over-pressure and has been tested for beam currents up to 60 mA. The measured target yield is 80% of the theoretically calculated yield of 18F, which is used for the synthesis of [18F] 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose.